Newsgroups: sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!news.mathworks.com!gatech!news.Gsu.EDU!news-feed-1.peachnet.edu!news.netins.net!internet.spss.com!markrose
From: markrose@spss.com (Mark Rosenfelder)
Subject: Re: Protoworld: tank = liquid container
Message-ID: <D8u7rC.7nB@spss.com>
Sender: news@spss.com
Organization: SPSS Inc
References: <3otjap$sfo@news.ccit.arizona.edu> <3p6bhd$qnt@tardis.trl.oz.au>
Date: Fri, 19 May 1995 18:09:10 GMT
Lines: 23

In article <3p6bhd$qnt@tardis.trl.oz.au>,
Jacques Guy <jbm@newsserver.trl.oz.au> wrote:
>hlu@helium.gas.uug.arizona.edu (Hung J Lu) writes:
>>To the "grand masters" in the ultimate quest for the primordial 
>>language: has this term already been discussed?
>
>>English: tank
>>Spanish: tanque
>>Mandarin: tong3 (pail,bucket)
>>Hokkien: thang2 (pail,bucket)
>
>Ah, yes, wonderful. And in most Austronesian languages I know,
>"tanga", or a variant thereof, means "basket, container"

In Brazil also it's a container of sorts.

>Add it to the list!

We can go farther, I think.  As Jacques' research has already amply 
demonstrated, the earliest form of Proto-World consisted of a single
word, **ana 'hole, womb, sex, one'.  Now consider the word **t-ana-k,
formed from the proto-word by adding a stop at both ends.  Now, what
is a hole with points of closure on either end but a container?
